Five murders in 24 hrs mark crime spike

CHENNAI: Five deaths in separate cases of homicide, including that of a mentallychallenged man, in just 24 hours from Monday evening left various localities in the city on tenterhooks.

Police said Vasudevan, a mentally challenged man, died in hospital early on Tuesday, two days after he sustained serious injuries to the head when five men attacked him with stones in Aminjikarai. Police arrested the five men.

The 51-year-old man from Choolaimedu had gone to Aminjikarai and was walking along a street in Collectorate Colony when the supects, lounging around, teased him, police said. When he got angry and hurled stones at them, they pulled him to a deserted stretch and hit him with stones. He sustained severe injuries and was taken to hospital. Police arrested Aminjikarai residents S Azarudeen, 21, Z Tamin Ansari, 21, M

Aasic

, 20, A

Yasik Ali

, 20, all school dropouts, and S Ibrahim, a second year BCom student.

On Monday night, unknown assailants hacked to death the owner of an electrical goods store in his Ekkattuthangal residence. Police said

Uday Balan

, 36, also the head of a city club that supported British football club Arsenal, was alone. His wife Loka was at her mother's place. His father Sadasivam found him dead with injuries to the body and neck. The Guindy police are investigating. Police identified an autorickshaw driver, whose body passersby found in his vehicle on Tuesday morning, as Bala Murugan, 37, of

St Thomas Mount

.

In Madhavaram, police started a search for a Sri Lankan refugee and his lover for the murder of his sister-in-law on Monday night.Police said George Kennedy , 42, was married to Sridevi, both Sri Lankan refugees.Sridevi learned that her husband was living in with another woman. On Monday night, she took her sister Ranjani with her and they confronted her husband. After an argument, Kennedy hit and pushed Ranjani down. She sustained head injuries and died. Kennedy and his lover fled.

On Tuesday evening, the

Pattinampakkam

police found in a vacant plot the body of a man with strangulation marks on the neck. The man, who appeared to be around 45, is yet to be identified.